Penélope Cruz

In the 2000s, Mónica has left her dancing career and achieved fame on her own in the youth-oriented TV series Un Paso Adelante. She attended high school with actor Ray Romano. This similarity has been used in Spanish TV ads. Drescher was born and raised in Queens, New York. Her younger sister Mónica Cruz resembles her a lot. She also had a role in the movie This Is Spinal Tap as Bobbie Fleckman. The relationship started on the set of the film Vanilla Sky in which they appeared together. Drescher's first role in a major motion picture was a bit part in Saturday Night Fever.

In early 2001 she began a three-year relationship with Tom Cruise. She wrote about her experiences in the book Cancer Schmancer. In 1999 she appeared in Pedro Almodóvar's Todo sobre mi madre which won an Academy Award for Foreign Language Film. Drescher was also diagnosed with uterine cancer, and it was eventually treated to remission. She also appeared with Matt Damon in All The Pretty Horses. She was paraphrased as saying in an interview with Larry King that although it was a very negative experience, she found ways to chalk her experience into something positive; she saw her rapist sent to prison. Cruz's first major films were Jamón, Jamón and the more widely known (in the US) Belle Époque, a film which won an Academy Award for Foreign Language Film. It took her many years to overcome this obstacle, and it took her even longer to admit this to the press.

She also was a TV presenter for the teen-oriented program La Quinta Marcha, in collaboration with Jesús Vázquez. In 1985, robbers ransacked Drescher's apartment and raped her and one of her girlfriends. She then started a relationship with Nacho Cano, a member of the group, which lasted for several years. In her autobiography Drescher discusses the fact that this is, in fact, her real voice, and the many voice lessons she has had to take to overcome it for movie auditions (only to have it end up being her trademark). She first achieved fame when she appeared in the video clip La fuerza del destino for the Spanish synth-pop group Mecano. Her voice is a combination of a high nasal pitch and a New York/Jewish accent that many people find unpleasant. Her parents named her after a song by Joan Manuel Serrat. She is most famous for her somewhat autobiographical role as the nanny Fran Fine in The Nanny.

Born in Madrid, Spain, Cruz was a dancer as a child and young teen, and actually dropped out of high school to pursue dancing at the National Conservatory of Madrid (majoring in Classical Ballet) and theatre at Cristina Rota's School in New York (4 years). Fran Drescher (born September 30, 1957) is an American actress. Penélope Cruz Sánchez, nicknamed simply Pe, (born April 28, 1974) is a Spanish actress. IMDB Profile (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004851/). Don't Move (2004).

Head in the Clouds (2004). Gothika (2003). Fanfan la tulipe (2003). Vanilla Sky (2001).

Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001). Blow (2001). Woman On Top (2000). All The Pretty Horses (1999).